In the past, printers have been located at central locations within multiple user environments. For example, individual printers have often been located within a network environment where the printer is capable of servicing multiple users. Typically, a plurality of individual personal computers (PCS) are linked within a network to a single, dedicated printer. Individual network users are then able to submit print jobs to the printer from several locations. In the past, it has been known to queue print jobs based upon the source of the print job, and further by assigning a priority to each print job.
Also in the past, copiers have been located at central locations within multiple user environments. Typically, a copier is provided at a central location within an office. Multiple users are able to access the device by walking over to the device and loading documents into the copier that require copying. Such copiers are referred to as "walk-up copiers". Such users are referred to as "walk-up" users.
A typical printer contains an image generating device such as a laser, and a photoreceptor such as a photoconductor drum, typically referred to as a laser printer. A digitally formatted document is sent in the form of a print job request from a user at a host, or personal, computer. The print job request comprises a digitally formatted document that is downloaded from the host computer. The downloaded information is written onto the photoreceptor by the laser. Powder toner is then used to generate an intermediate image. Individual pieces of paper are then placed into contact with the photoreceptor and the intermediate image, thereby transferring the intermediate image onto the individual pieces of paper.
A typical copier contains a charge coupled device (CCD) and an image generating device similar to the laser printer described above. More particularly, the image present on a document is scanned with the charge coupled device, which generates an image in the form of digital image data. Such digital image data comprises a digitally formatted document that forms a copy job. The copy job is then delivered to the image generating device where it is printed onto individual pieces of paper. For the case of large documents, an infeed tray is used to deliver individual pages for scanning with the charge coupled device.
The ability to implement multiple function features on a single document device has been recently developed. However, the provision of additional functionality to such devices has further complicated the complexity of job requests that are submitted to such device. Not only are multiple print jobs received, but other types of jobs are further received. In the case of a device capable of printing and copying, both print jobs and copy jobs are capable of being submitted to the same device by one or more users. Hence, there exist additional needs to choreograph the handling of such multiple job requests.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,345 to Paradise, et al., discloses a queue management process for a multi-mode machine operative for ordering printing of jobs on a strict first-in, first-out basis, and for prioritizing facsimile jobs. However, Paradise, et al., provides a plurality of operating modes, one of which delivers print and copy jobs to an output queue in the order in which they are received, while facsimile jobs are held in queue.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,296 to Padalino, et al,. discloses a multiple-function machine having interleaved job execution. Multiple-machine users are intermittently serviced via a switching scheme that is at least partially determined by the set-up time required for a particular job to be completed. The interleaving of jobs is implemented so as to eliminate the presence of unused time associated with the period required to set up a particular job. Correspondingly, the machine operates by intermittently making progress on multiple jobs. However, such implementation does not give automatic priority to a walk-up user. Furthermore, such implementation does not conditionally prepare the machine for use by a walk-up user in anticipation of a job being submitted. Even furthermore, such machine does not contain a timeout feature for returning such machine from a walk-up user copy mode to a network print mode.
Prior art solutions do not give any special priority to a walk-up copier user. Accordingly, a walk-up user must wait for any network print jobs in progress to complete before they can make their copies. Furthermore, if a network print job arrives while the user is setting up their copy job, the printer will begin processing that job. As a result, the user must wait for the network job to complete before they can make their copies.
This invention relates to improvements to a common printer/copier device that enable walk-up users to more efficiently copy documents within a network print environment.